British author Monique Roffey won the Costa Book of the Year 2020 award for her sixth book 'The Mermaid of Black Conch'. The winner was announced in a virtual ceremony on January 26, 2021.
Sharing the news, Costa Book Awards tweeted:
Started in 1971, the Costa Book Awards is a popular book prize given to books written by authors residing in the UK and Ireland. According to a statement on their official website, "the prize has five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book – with one of the five winning books selected as the overall Costa Book of the year and each category is judged separately by a panel of three judges per category. The Costa Book of the Year is then chosen by a nine-member panel which includes representatives from the original panels who are joined by other well-known people who love reading."
The 2020 Costa Book of the Year and Costa Novel Award is awarded to Monique Roffey for her novel 'The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story'. The story is based on a popular legend from Taino-- an indigenious group of people from Caribbean. It is a dark love story about a fisherman named David and Aycayia, who is cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid. Praising the book, historian and Chair of Judges, Suzannah Lipscomb called it “utterly original".
Reacting to the news, Roffey said in a tweet:
2020 Costa Award winners from other categories are:
Winner of the 2020 First Novel Award- Ingrid Persaud for 'Love After Love'
Winner of the 2020 Biography Award- Lee Lawrence for 'The Louder I Will Sing'
Winner of the 2020 Poetry Award- Eavan Boland for 'The Historians'
Winner of the 2020 Children's Book Award- Natasha Farrant for 'Voyage of the Sparrowhawk'
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